HS Credit for Middle School Courses

Overview In 2016 the Illinois School Code changed to allow districts to award high school credit for high school courses taken at middle schools. The new law indicates that the following criteria must be met: Student must be enrolled in 7th or 8th grade Must be a course currently offered by the high school that is granting credit Course must be taught by a teacher that is certified to teach the course at the high school level Grade in the course must be included in student’s high school grade point average High school classes taken at either middle school building will be offered for high school credit in the 2017-2018 school year. The courses will mirror the HS courses Erika

Courses The courses that are offered at the middle school and the high school currently are: Algebra I (H) - 7th & 8th grades Geometry (H) - 8th grade only English I (H) - 8th grade only Spanish I - 8th grade only Chinese I - 8th grade only Placement is based on criteria already established. Erika

HS admin or counselor

HS admin or counselor

HS Alignment & Transcript Course will cover the same standards as the high school courses Summative Assessments and Semester Finals will be the same in MS & HS MS semester final will be after winter break to align to MS quarters Transcript Course and grade will appear under Grade 9 on the transcript and will be calculated into the high school GPA HS admin or counselor

HS admin or counselor

GPA/Weights Grade will count in the HS & MS GPA If the course is an honors course it will be weighted +.5 points in the HS semester GPA If the course is an honors course it will be weighted +.5 points in the MS quarter GPA HS admin or counselor

Benefits Students will take English and math classes that are already a part of their planned academic path and will now be able to count towards his/her high school graduation credits and GPA Students will have more flexibility in their high school elective choices. MS admin

Student Support Access to Middle School Counselors Counselors for Planning Counselors for Monitoring Progress Counselors for Social/Emotional Support Individualized Goal Setting and College Planning (Naviance) Naviance will start with 6th Grade potentially MS admin

Can a student drop a credit bearing course? All HS courses at the MS will be credit bearing When in a HS credit class, students will have until the start of the 3rd quarter to opt out of credit. If a student opts out of credit then they will remain in the course for the remainder of the year. The course will be repeated the following year. The grade will not appear on your transcript. HS policy allows any student to repeat a class, with approval, to replace the grade. Both grades would appear on the transcript, but only the new grade will affect the GPA. (17-18 only) If students in Geometry drop within the first 20 days they will be moved to Algebra and work towards HS credit. MS admin